Agile development has become flavour of the month recently, but there are still many things that are widely misunderstood about it. Let’s look at some of the most common ones and try to put things right.
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Don’t Forget the Documents
Because Agile development is less formal than traditional methods, it’s often felt that there’s no need for documentation. In fact, this is not the case – documentation may be simpler but it’s still needed.
Serving the Customer
One of the advantages of Agile is that it’s able to serve customer needs. The problem is that customers often don’t know exactly what they want. At the start the detail of projects can be vague. This can mean that customers sometimes change their minds as development progresses. Fortunately, using Agile methods makes it easier to adapt the project as it progresses. One of its key features is the ability to adapt and deliver a flexible response to changing requirements. So while the customer may not always be right, Agile does make it easier to deliver their needs.
Scrum Down
Scrum is widely talked about in the Agile world but often widely misunderstood too. It’s often seen as a project management tool, but in fact Scrum largely does away with the need for project management. While a Scrum Master doesn’t manage the team, he or she does work to remove barriers to a smooth operation. If you need to understand more about how this can work, look for Scrum Master Training in Dublin from a company such as https://www.althris.com/courses/scrum-master/ .
Not All About Speed
Agile is often seen as a means of speeding up development. This is not necessarily the case – it’s not about making development faster so much as having a pace of development that can be maintained, eliminating downtime and ensuring smooth delivery of projects by ensuring that you stay in control.
Project Approaches
Agile development is all about collaboration and the creation of self-organising teams. But often companies using Agile have a project management framework already in place. Most often this will be PRINCE2. Agile isn’t a replacement for this, but PRINCE2 can be configured to support an Agile working method. It can also be used in a waterfall approach, so you don’t need to choose a new project tool just because you’re adopting Agile.
